2009 SEMA Show: Meanwhile, Back at the Sands

With announcements from OEMs, celebrity appearances, and an endless supply of booth models, SEMA gets all the attention during the few days known as Automotive Aftermarket Industry Week. But the other part of AAIW is the AAPEX show over at the nearby Sands Expo Center. If you’re confused by all the acronyms, AAPEX stands for […]

Michael Austin

Nov 6, 2009

With announcements from OEMs, celebrity appearances, and an endless supply of booth models, SEMA gets all the attention during the few days known as Automotive Aftermarket Industry Week. But the other part of AAIW is the AAPEX show over at the nearby Sands Expo Center. If you’re confused by all the acronyms, AAPEX stands for Automotive Aftermarket Products Expo, and it takes up nearly all of the available 1.8 million square feet at the Sands. It’s basically split into two sections: upstairs and downstairs.

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The AAPEX show floor

The AAPEX show floor

Upstairs is a standard trade show on a massive scale. Everything, and I do mean everything, that has to do with automotive parts and accessories can be found here. The visual landscape is dominated by giant displays from major players like Bosch and Continental, but there’s always a tacky air freshener company booth nearby. And you can find specialists for any area of the car, such as General Seal Corporation, which specializes in, well, seals. The great thing about AAPEX is that it focuses more on the trade part of trade show, whereas SEMA is definitely more about the show. The Sands is far less crowded, which means it’s easier to actually talk to someone about their products. And instead of booth models, AAPEX show stands are populated with actual employees that work on the products they’re representing. Plus the Sands even has a bathroom with a Dyson Air Blade hand dryer; take that, Las Vegas Convention Center.

I just thought that superhero guy looks awesome. Plus, you can’t get parts without Taiwan, according to the sign.

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Can you point me to where Pretty Good Motor Company is located?

AAPEX is a fine trade show, which actually means it’s kind of boring. That is, of course, until you go downstairs. Some parts of this section of the Sands exit to the street, so the lower level isn’t technically a basement, but it sure feels like it. The concrete ceiling is lower than the upstairs, the lighting is harsher, and the booths and products are far shoddier. Down here it’s like a model United Nations of parts suppliers, with representation from China, India, Turkey, Taiwan, Mexico, Columbia, Hong Kong, and Korea. The rows of pre-fab booths are packed with companies with awkwardly translated names like Ningbo Yumway Automobile Parts Co., Ltd. (not to be confused with Ningbo Lucky Foreign Trade Co., Ltd.), and Okay Motor Products (Hangzhou), Inc. My personal favorite was Grace News, Inc., which manufactures neither grace nor news, but wrenches.

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Kind of self explanatory

The lower level of AAPEX is the trade–show equivalent of the back alley of an ethnic neighborhood: densely packed, filled with the sounds of foreign tongues and with a slight whiff of danger in the air. I half expected to turn some dark corner only to hear a sales pitch from a man with a thick accent wearing a trenchcoat. “Hey boss, you want fuel pumps? I got great deals. You want brake drums? Tell me what you need, I get it. Best prices.” In reality, the place wasn’t quite that shady, but I avoided eye contact just to make sure I didn’t accidentally sign up to buy 10,000 sets of air springs. Many of the parts on display at SEMA or upstairs at AAPEX are made by the companies in the basement of the Sands, or at least copied by them as cheaply as possible. I assume there are a number of reputable companies here too, as some booths flaunt the OEM affiliations of the parts on display.

Delicious happy spicy bushings

If you want flash and excitement, stick to SEMA. But if you want to see how the sausage is made in your aftermarket parts, you will find AAPEX as strangely fascinating as I do.